Apartment Building

A woman who may have had a seizure crashed her car into an empty apartment building Thursday in Port Orange, according to The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal . The woman's car went through the wall of a unit on the building's first floor. She was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center of Port Orange. Read more here .

Anthony Everett attracted a standing room only crowd on Monday night, as he set about answering as many questions as possible about a new project he's working on, an apartment complex called The Princeton at College Park. The proposed residential complex, which still needs to be approved by Orlando's Planning Department, is very much intended to fit in with what College Park offers now, said Everett, the director of Central Florida for Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, the development firm that wants to build it. “We were trying to come up with something that fits the character of the district,” Everett told the large crowd that turned out for the community meeting held at the College Park Baptist Church Fellowship Hall. “We thought about the 'college' in College Park and we wanted it to look like something that could be in Georgetown,” he said of the upscale and historic neighborhood in northwest Washington D.C. To get an idea of what the apartment complex would be like, Everett said, he pointed to the Steel House, the apartment building at 750 N. Orange Ave. that his firm also built.

An apartment building was heavily damaged by fire this morning in Daytona Beach. Firefighters responded to the 600 block of S. Ridgewood Avenue just before 9 a.m., Daytona Beach Fire Department spokesman Lt. Larry R. Stoney said. When they arrived, smoke and flames were coming from the second floor of the two-story wood-frame structure that had been converted from a home into apartments, Stoney said. There were reports of people being trapped inside the structure and when firefighters arrived, a man was coming out of the building and they assisted him, Stoney said.

A 19-year-old woman apparently lost control of her car Thursday and drove it into a building at student apartments near the University of Central Florida, authorities said. A 1998 Honda driven by Nana Kamagate hit the building at Campus Crossings about 7:30 p.m., the Florida Highway Patrol said. Kamagate had been having problems with her car and hit the building as she tried to park, troopers said. No one was not hurt. The crash happened at Green Badger and Red Quill lanes.

An Orange County apartment building was evacuated after smoke emerged from the walls of an apartment building on Goldenrod Road this morning, officials said. Fire spokesman John Mulhall said the fire was quickly controlled inside the three-story building located inside the Cranes Landing apartment complex at 3440 Goldenrod Road. Residents were evacuated but it is unclear how many people were affected, he said. arehernandez@tribune.com or 407-420-5471

A faulty air-conditioning and heating unit inside a Palm Bay apartment building started a fire this morning at a four-unit apartment building, officials said. No one was hurt, according to Palm Bay authorities. The damage was contained to Unit 101. It sustained about $10,000 in damages. The Fire Marshal ruled it an accidental fire. The fire was reported at 2:30 a.m. at Windwood Apartments, 1571 Windwood Drive NE, by a woman who was awakened by a smoke alarm. She called 911 after she saw smoke coming from the air-conditioning and heating unit mounted to the wall underneath a window.

A woman who obtained her learner's permit last week crashed into an apartment building in Orange County on Monday, the Florida Highway Patrol reported. Sherley Laguerre, 36, was driving on Winford Avenue in the Millenia Pointe apartment community when she accidentally stepped on the gas instead of hitting the brakes, an FHP report said. She lost control of the car and drove into a building. No one was hurt. FHP Sgt. Kim Montes said Laguerre obtained her learner's permit Jan. 6 and was driving with another adult in the vehicle.

A 42-year-old man died at a local hospital Thursday morning hours after he was found shot outside an apartment building in Orlando's Parramore neighborhood. The man was found in the 800 block of W. Jackson Street at 9 a.m. "We do not have a suspect in custody at this time," Orlando Police Sgt. Jim Young said. "Motive is unknown at this point. " The police activity attracted onlookers. Some said the victim was found on the ground behind the building. Others said that the man used to live in the area.

Residents in a 36-unit apartment building were forced to leave their homes overnight on Sunday after firefighters tore up some of their ceilings to ensure a fire in a breezeway wouldn't spread. The fire at 5365 Cinderlane Parkway, Cinderlane Apartments in the Rosemont neighborhood, started about 2:30 p.m., and the building was evacuated. No one was hurt, fire officials said. Orlando firefighters are unsure what started the blaze, but they think that some wiring may have been smoldering after being hit by lightning Saturday night.

Twenty-six people were injured when an explosion, probably caused by a gas leak, ripped through an apartment building on Saturday, firefighters said. Rescue workers, helped by sniffer dogs, searched inside the shell of the seven-story building to see whether anyone was trapped. The blast threw debris hundreds of yards and severely damaged neighboring buildings, which were evacuated.

A man pulled from a fire on Sunday night told authorities that he started the blaze accidentally — while trying to burn the bugs in his apartment, the Orlando Police Department said. Orlando police and fire crews were called to the fire at an apartment building on Lakeview Street, near Lake Concord just north of downtown Orlando, about 11:30 p.m. The man was rescued from his burning apartment and taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to Orlando police.

A 42-year-old man died at a local hospital Thursday morning hours after he was found shot outside an apartment building in Orlando's Parramore neighborhood. The man was found in the 800 block of W. Jackson Street at 9 a.m. "We do not have a suspect in custody at this time," Orlando Police Sgt. Jim Young said. "Motive is unknown at this point. " The police activity attracted onlookers. Some said the victim was found on the ground behind the building. Others said that the man used to live in the area.

Orlando police identified the man gunned down during a drive-by shooting on Mercy Drive last week. Nathaniel Williams Jr., 27, was found shot Jan. 16 outside an apartment building in the Windsor Cove complex in the 1400 block of Mercy Drive, police said. Officers arrived about 8:15 pm. after receiving reports of shots fired in the neighborhood, said Sgt. Jim Young, a police spokesman. Williams was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. No other details were provided and the case is under investigation.

A woman who obtained her learner's permit last week crashed into an apartment building in Orange County on Monday, the Florida Highway Patrol reported. Sherley Laguerre, 36, was driving on Winford Avenue in the Millenia Pointe apartment community when she accidentally stepped on the gas instead of hitting the brakes, an FHP report said. She lost control of the car and drove into a building. No one was hurt. FHP Sgt. Kim Montes said Laguerre obtained her learner's permit Jan. 6 and was driving with another adult in the vehicle.

A 60-year-old Volusia County man who left his hospital bed to shoot his brother was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison. Ricardo "Ricky" Antonio Ramirez was convicted in August of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony that carried a minimum-mandatory 25-year sentence. Ramirez was a patient at Florida Hospital Orlando Jan. 13, 2012 when he drove home, got into an argument with his brother, James Ramirez, retrieved a gun from his bedroom and shot him in the right thigh.

One of the most marked differences in the Orlando area's apartment sector from a year ago is the amount of construction. During September, more than 6,100 units were underway in an area mainly consisting of Orange and Seminole counties - double the construction pace from September 2012, according to a report released last week by Real Data Apartment Market Research . Downtown Orlando and the area near the University of Central Florida have...

An explosion Saturday leveled a two-story apartment building, killing a boy and injuring at least nine people, authorities said. Eric Staana, 6, was dead on arrival at an area hospital. His mother, father and sister were among those injured in the blast. Firefighters in this Chicago suburb evacuated nearby buildings because of leaking natural gas. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

An explosion tore apart an apartment building near downtown Milan on Friday, killing at least six people and destroying a popular bar on the ground floor, police said. At least 12 people were injured. Rescue workers dug through the rubble with their bare hands, fearing there might be more victims buried beneath the tons of debris that slammed into the normally busy bar. The 100-year-old building was on a main road that leads into downtown Milan.

One person was killed and another person was injured in an early afternoon fire in Polk County Saturday. Firefighters were dispatched to the eight-unit apartment building on Snively Avenue in Eloise, a city near Winter Haven, at about 12:20 p.m. Saturday. When Polk County Fire Rescue got to the scene, the front of the building was already fully engulfed in flames, officials said. Firefighters managed to stop the flames from spreading to the back of the building but smoke and water damage was sustained.

A Kissimmee man is facing attempted-murder charges after deputy sheriffs say he stabbed a man several times and left him sitting in a pool of blood outside a home late Tuesday. Hector Ramos, 33, told deputy sheriffs the man was a constant threat and during this encounter, he grabbed a kitchen knife because the man would not leave his apartment. The victim, whose name was not released, was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition, according to Twis Lizasuain, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.